A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO ENABLE RETIRED nurses TO RETURN TO EMPLOYMENT WITH LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENTS in cleveland county WITHOUT LOSING RETIREMENT BENEFITS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 128‑24(5)c. reads as rewritten:
"c.	Should a beneficiary who retired on an early or service retirement allowance be reemployed, or otherwise engaged to perform services, by an employer participating in the Retirement System on a part‑time, temporary, interim, or on fee‑for‑service basis, whether contractual or otherwise, and if such beneficiary earns an amount during the 12‑month period immediately following the effective date of retirement or in any calendar year which exceeds fifty percent (50%) of the reported compensation, excluding terminal payments, during the 12 months of service preceding the effective date of retirement, or twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), whichever is greater, as hereinafter indexed, then the retirement allowance shall be suspended as of the first day of the month following the month in which the reemployment earnings exceed the amount above, for the balance of the calendar year. The retirement allowance of the beneficiary shall be reinstated as of January 1 of each year following suspension. The amount that may be earned before suspension shall be increased on January 1 of each year by the ratio of the Consumer Price Index to the Index one year earlier, calculated to the nearest tenth of a percent (1/10 of 1%).
The computation of postretirement earnings of a beneficiary under this sub‑subdivision, G.S. 128‑24(5)c., who has been retired at least six months and has not been employed in any capacity with a local health department for at least six months immediately preceding the effective date of reemployment, shall not include earnings while the beneficiary is employed as a nurse in a permanent full‑time or part‑time capacity that exceeds fifty percent (50%) of the applicable workweek in a local health department. The local health department shall certify to the Retirement System that a beneficiary is employed as a nurse by a local health department under the provisions of this sub‑subdivision.
As used in this section, 'local health department' includes a district health department, consolidated human services agency, or a public health authority as those entities are established under Article 2 of Chapter 130A of the General Statutes. 
As used in this section, 'retired nurse' is a beneficiary of the Local Governmental Employees' Retirement System of  North Carolina who:
1.	Was previously employed as a licensed or certified nurse;
2.	Has been retired at least six months;
3.	Has not been employed in any capacity for at least six months, immediately preceding the effective date of reemployment;
4.	Is determined by a local health department to have had satisfactory performance during the last year of employment by the local health department; and
5.	Is employed to provide professional health care services in Cleveland County.
Beneficiaries employed under this sub‑subdivision are not entitled to any benefits otherwise provided under this Chapter as a result of this period of employment."
SECTION 2.  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, Cleveland County shall pay to the Local Governmental Employees' Retirement System a Reemployed Nurse Contribution Rate of eleven and seventy‑hundredths percent (11.70%) as a percentage of covered salaries being paid to retired nurses who are exempt from the earnings cap under this act.  Cleveland County shall report monthly to the Retirement Systems Division on payments made pursuant to this section.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective June 30, 2007, and expires June 30, 2009.